Efraín is 58 years old. He is married and has four children, and he lives in San Pedro Sula. He has been a farmer his whole life. He grows coffee, radishes, cilantro, carrots, corn, beans, and other crops. He sells his products at the local market and so earns an income. He is requesting a loan of 10,000 lempiras as part of a group loan. He will use it to fertilize and improve his coffee farm so his crop will grow better. That way, his family will have a better life and his children will be able to go to school. The group is called Por un Futuro Mejor (For a Better Future). It has eight members who live in the same community and are all farmers. Each one is requesting 10,000 lempiras, making the loan 80,000 lempiras in total. In the photo from left to right are Jaime, Yensy, Efraín, Adelmo, Erick, Ramón, Carlos, and José.

Additional Information

This loan is administered by Organización de Desarrollo Empresarial Femenino Financiera, S.A. (ODEF), a Kiva Field Partner in Honduras. A leader in the microfinance sector since 1985, ODEF strives to combat poverty by offering a wide array of financial services to low-income men and women. The organization works with its parent NGO, ODEF OPD, to provide training and technical assistance to impoverished microentrepreneurs. By incorporating the entire family unit in this process, ODEF OPD aims to improve the standard of living through the creation of profitable enterprises. Visit ODEF’s partner page for more information.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.